Scholars exchange views at the T20 summit held from July 29 to 30 in Beijing.

 

Ahead of the G20 Hangzhou Summit in September, scholars put forward a series of suggestions to ensure the sustainability and consistency of the meetings at a Think 20 (T20) summit, which was held from July 29 to 30 in Beijing under the theme of “Building New Global Relationships.”
As China takes the reins of the G20 from Turkey and looks ahead to hosting the 2016 summit in Hangzhou, the international community is exploring ways to carry on the development agenda of the summit and boost common development.
 

Amar Bhattacharya, a senior fellow of the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, explained the continuity of G20 agendas, saying “Every year, there is a new country to take over the agenda, but if you look at the issues, most of them are what we called legacy issues.”
 

On infrastructure, for example, China has picked up where Turkey left off and given the issue greater focus, but there will be no big results, Bhattacharya said, adding that next year, it could be taken up by Germany when it takes its turn holding the rotating chair.
 

Yves Tiberghien, director of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, pointed out looming challenges facing the sustainable development of the G20.
 

“In order to have sustainability in the capacity of the G20, we first need all the key countries, especially the United States and China, to support the G20,” Tiberghien said.
 

For the implementation of the G20 agenda, he suggested a secretariat and some regular procedures. “Yet, you cannot build a secretariat and deepen the G20 without US support. So, in the end, keeping all members, especially the United States committed and involved is the essential priority,” he said, urging efforts to find more flexible ways to ensure the durability and consistency of the G20.
 

“Currently, this responsibility falls to the respective presidencies of the G20, but also to all the networks involved behind the G20, including T20 think tanks and civil society groups,” Tiberghien added.
 

Tiberghien’s idea of instituting a secretariat was echoed by Jose Luis Zapatero, former prime minister of Spain. Zapatero was in favor of a permanent secretariat to strengthen the bond of G20 member states as well as close  connections between the G20 and such international organizations as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Pan Yingli, a professor from Shanghai Jiaotong University, noted that the G20 should consolidate its legitimacy, and to do so, it must become more effective and representative.
 

The G20 covers about two-thirds of the world’s population and 80 to 90 percent of the global economic aggregate. It is representative, but enhancing its long-term effectiveness is a challenge, Pan said.
 

Compared with other organizations, the United Nations is both representative and effective, but it hasn’t achieved much in the economic field. The Bretton Woods System was built as a joint-stock system, so its power distribution pattern is not representative. When the Asian financial crisis was escalating, the IMF fell short of resources and could not act as a creditor, Pan said.
 

Pan offered two pieces of advice to improve the representativeness of the G20 and transform it into a long-term effective governance mechanism. First, it can attract leaders of regional organizations to assume the observer role of the summit. Moreover, G20 topics can be made more transparent with an advisory system established to gather different appeals of diverse interest groups, Pan said.
 

Tiberghien said, one way the G20 can transition from being merely a forum for solving emergencies to serving as a long-term platform for a global governance revolution is by developing “ideas, networks, and an agenda that allows the G20 to play a patient institution-building role.”
 

He also raised three suggestions. “First, the G20 must be innovative, inclusive, legitimate, and relevant, which means it must be nimble and relevant to the most salient problems facing people, yet have some persistence and sustainability in its operations.” 

“We need some kind of stable networks or systems, yet the architecture must always be able to include a large variety of voices from the bottom. It must also be fair and balanced in terms of openness to all sides that are not controlled by anyone,” Tiberghien said.
 

“Ultimately, the G20 will only succeed as a long-term global governance mechanism if the key countries involved show interest and commitment and if their citizens understand the value of global governance and support it,” he added. 

 

 

Zhao Yuan is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.